6 TOP ECONOMISTS ANSWER: Is China Heading Toward A Hard Landing?

China's economy grew 8.9% last quarter, the slowest pace in 2.5 years. And worries of a Chinese hard landing, defined as a sharp and sudden deceleration in growth, gained momentum last year.

However, China has been proactive in its efforts to prevent a hard landing. It has fine-tuned its policies to curb inflation, boost domestic consumption, and prevent a housing bubble.

The Chinese government intervened heavily from 1989 - 1991 to cool its economy, causing real GDP growth to plunge to 4.1 percent in 1989, from 11.3 percent the previous year. It stepped in again in 1993. And some argue that this time around it's no different, and the the government knows exactly what it is doing.

As the European sovereign debt crisis continues and the global economy struggles to regain steam, all eyes are on Asia's engine of growth. So, we asked six top China analysts whether they saw a hard or soft landing scenario and what we should keep an eye on.

We believe that the Chinese economy will have a soft-landing of growth in 2012, but with strong headwinds. We expect 8.6 percent GDP growth in 2012.

There are two key elements to our view. First, we do see both external and internal risks to our growth forecasts. The biggest risk to our soft-landing call is a much worse eurozone sovereign debt crisis, while the second biggest risk is the falling property investment under the severe property tightening measures. Second, we believe the Chinese economy has a relatively healthy balance sheet and the government is flexible to adjust policy when it is necessary to deliver stable growth (moderate decline is allowed).